[Posted on April 16, 2008 - 4:34 PM]
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Stroll down Saddle Lane in the Knollwood neighborhood of Cherry Hill, N.J., some Friday morning and you might notice a truck pull up to the curb, extend a robotic arm to lift a large container on wheels and tip glass and plastic bottles, aluminum cans, junk mail, and other recyclables into the truck before gingerly setting the container down curbside.But only the truly observant are likely to spot the radio frequency identification, or RFID, tag on the recycling container, which a reader on the truck scans to record information about the weight of the contents and the household it came from. That data is instantly transmitted wirelessly back to a computer server in Philadelphia, allowing residents of the household to almost immediately log onto an online account to see how much they recycled that week.
The incentive, beyond feeling environmentally virtuous, are rewards, discounts and gift cards for a range of products and services based on the number of points the household has earned. The more material people recycle, the more points.
The system is the brainchild of RecycleBank, a New York company that on Tuesday secured a $30 million Series B round of financing, led by noted venture capital and clean technology investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, joined by RRE Ventures, Sigma Partners and The Westly Group. The program is available in 40 municipalities in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. In Cherry Hill, it is available now to only 930 households in the neighborhood known as Knollwood, but beginning in June all of the town's 25,000 residents will be able to participate, with RecycleBank-equipped trucks conducting pick-ups five days a week.
The program costs the municipalities, private haulers and recycling facilities that are RecycleBank's customers approximately $2 per household per month. Yet the savings can exceed expenses by sparing local landfills, according to the company. Retrofitting garbage trucks with the mechanical arm and RFID reader costs $10,000 to $35,000 per truck.
But does bribing people to recycle work? The early results are encouraging. For example, Knollwood's neighboring community, Elk Township, has seen a 136% increase in recycling due to RecycleBank.
RecycleBank users can redeem their points in the form of coupons and gift cards from retailers such as CVS Caremark Corp. [[CVS], Dunkin' Donuts, Staples Inc. [SPLS] and Whole Foods Market Inc. [WFMI], to name a few, and for products from companies including Kraft Foods Inc. [KFT], Patagonia, Stonyfield Farms and Timberland Co. [TBL] They can also get tee-shirts made from recycled bottles from The Coca Cola Co. [KO] (it takes five plastic water bottles to make an extra-large tee-shirt) or to a plant a tree through a company aptly called PlantATreeUSA.
KPCB, a prominent Silicon Valley venture firm that has invested $80 million in cleantech companies in the first quarter of 2007, "has been actively looking for companies that help consumers go green," said partner Trae Vassallo. "RecycleBank's business model proves that going green can be market-driven, putting money back into local economies and drastically reducing landfill waste."
RecycleBank, which expects to be profitable next year, plans to use the new funding to expand its operations move into markets outside the U.S. Co-founder and CEO Ron Gonen said the company is also planning to grow using acquisitions. "We're talking to other environmental companies that help people become more environmental in their daily actions and that are looking to communicate their message more broadly," he says. "Our long-term deals with cities give us that platform." -- Mary Kathleen Flynn
For more on RecycleBank see Mar. 17 item from Tech Confidential
For more on KPCB and cleantech investing see April 9 post from Tech Confidential
